The holiday season is upon us! Hindus and Tantrics have just had Diwali. Of course Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa are coming, as is the Winter Solstice and the coming new year (Wow! 2012 already). All of these festivals (and don't forget Festivus!) have two thing in common: the concept of bringing in new spiritual light and the sharing of gifts. For me, the best way to bring in light is to share something that brings new learnings. One of my personal mottos is "We don't die when we stop breathing, we die when we stop learning." Right now, the single most effective and efficient way to share in-depth information is through books. I can think of no better way to share new ideas than

This season has holidays that involve candles and lights. The Tantric/Hindu holiday of Diwali is a multi-day holiday which includes lighting more candles each night. Hanukkah, also a multi-day holiday, also has people lighting more candles each night. On Christmas, electric lights (formerly candles) would like illuminate the tree and the home. Pagans light a Yule log. Kwanzaa uses a special candle holder for seven candles that are lit according to a specific pattern. This is also a time of sharing gifts. Traditionally, these gifts were relatively small, although commercialization has made the giving of gifts into something huge. This is a great time to wish health, well-being, and

An interview with me has just been published on The Magical Buffet. You can read it by going to THIS LINK. In the interview I talk about the changes you'll find in the new edition of Modern Magick, challenges I see for the Pagan, Wiccan, and magickal communities, what it was like to share an apartment with Scott Cunningham, and several other topics. I'd like to thank Rebecca of The Magical Buffet for giving me this opportunity. I really appreciate it. The Magical Buffet is one of the blogs I regularly read. If you're interested in "spirituality, politics, and pop culture," you might start reading that website, too. If you have any questions in relation to the comments I made there,

It is important for people who practice magick to be true skeptics. Too often I have seen people perform a ritual and then get swept away into a world where chance and mere happenstance are attributed to their magickal working. Such people constantly see magickal forces (often working against them) rather than more common explanations. If you're feeling sick, assume flu first, magickal attack last. As any person who regularly works with magick knows, most people don't believe in magick. Those who go around saying that every creaking sound in an old house is the sign of a ghost or the failure of a politician is due to their magickal ritual only make the doubters laugh more heartily. And